A Battle Unseen

[Doc]

Intelligence Summary Meeting of IBSI Section Heads, IBSI HQ, Suldanor, 2:30pm

Director Henry Martel tapped his stack of papers on the desk, "And that concludes our Dovani brief, and if there are no further questions, let's move on to Anantonese Affairs. We read in the papers that Lodamun is working again on their large platform sea based X-Band long distance radars. Mike, what do you have on that?"

IBSI tech analyst Mike Hengstrom said, "It's the program they apparently started decades ago: as a matter of fact, just before they joined the Empire they had discussed building these systems, though as soon as they joined the Empire, much of their technological development was put on hold. So I imagine they are just picking back up where they left off now that they have left. Not sure why they abruptly halted much of that development, but now that they are remilitarizing and have just left the Empire, it seems to be a renewed priority suddenly."

Martel asked: "How do we see this fitting in with Lodamun's over all posture of the last couple years?"

Hengstrom said: "Their intentions are fairly mixed: They intend to reassert themselves in the Mad Dog Ocean and in western Seleya. If their previous plans are any indication, they may ask to position one of these radars in the Anantonese Ocean. But they have been pretty circumspect regarding their posture toward the Empire now that they have left it. They haven't even publicly acknowledged the split in their paper yet. So it is a somewhat odd situation: We don't have a lot of information from Kensington yet regarding their new stance, but we can assume that now that they are independent, Kalistan remains not their chief priority or concern."

"Just as well," said Martel. "Her Imperial Majesty is planning a reorganization of our fleets in the Northern Anantonese now that the Fifth Fleet has been cancelled. We are sending the handful of ships that we completed to the 3rd Fleet, but they are going to be patrolling the Lorna Sea while the 4th Fleet takes up position in the Anantonese Ocean over to the Karzon Straits. As Lodamun is intent on dramatic increases on defensive spending, we will be happy to let them take the defense of the entire Mad Dog, and Kalistan will focus on returning to our traditional defensive stance."

Hengstrom nodded and said, "Our guys also think there is an arms race developing in the region, and would advise that Her Imperial Majesty pay attention to that so she isn't left behind."

Martel responded, "I actually think it is her intention to do just that."

Hengstrom asked, "That's fine. As long as we continue advising her, we need to make sure that Kalistan's position remains pre-eminent. Any increase in power should be met with a corresponding increase on our side."

Martel responded, "Hmmm, I don't know though. I think both she and Princess Margaret are convinced that Kalistan has been carrying the burden for defense of this hemisphere long enough without much help from anyone else, and the Empire has suffered as a result. If Lodamun and Egelion are happy sinking entire chunks of their economy into military spending, that's perfectly fine: It frees up money for Her Imperial Majesty to focus on improving Kalistan and Gaduridos. Kalistan is more than 100 years into this particular phase of the Imperial Project: Things changed when The Black Empress took over. I think Her Imperial Majesty wants to completely leave the legacy of Artania behind and return to a more traditional posture for Kalistan, while Lodamun and Egelion have both decided to start spending like the enemies are at the gates. So, more power to them. The Empress would rather take that kind of money and put it into health care and reforestation, and school and industrial investment. Which is also probably why she was so willing to let Lodamun go. As you know, Kalistan has no intention whatsoever in supporting any naval conflict on the other side of the world, especially over some abstract nonsense like free trade or international navigation."

"And yet our own missile defense program continues apace," interjected Cathy Martinez, of the Defense Projects Section.

"I'll tell you, I think Her Imperial Majesty is 50-50 on that as well. If we can't do it with our current budget, which, it looks like we won't be able to, I think Her Imperial Majesty would sooner scuttle that program too. We will keep working on the new Frigates in Hutori, but may stick to conventional weapons defense, because the technological necessity and budget for defense against a threat that will likely never realistically materialize for Kalistan is simply too high. She has said it is far easier to simply not play that game anymore and just focus on the things we can actually do something about."

There was silence in the room, and then Martinez responded, "That sounds like Margaret and her 'constructivism' talking."

Martel responded coldly, "Why do you think Her Imperial Majesty keeps Princess Margaret at IBSI? She wants us to be her spies, but she has a whole batch of other spies, who spy on us."

Nobody said anything.

"I really think she is paranoid," said Director Martel, almost under his breath. "But, lets move on to Southern Seleya... John, if you would please..."